Regarding Our Bain Story and Correction...

Sunday, 15 Jan 2012 | 12:26 PM ET

SHARES

That made the story wrong and unfair. So we withdrew it early Friday and noted our action with a correction.

We did some subsequent investigation which revealed that the story may not have been entirely wrong after all. The document we relied on for the original story came from the Special Inspector General of the Troubled Asset Relief Program. That office told us Friday that it was indeed referring to the actual Bain & Co. And in response Bain & Co. said Friday that one of its partners may have talked to people on the auto task force on an informal basis. The firm said it would investigate further and provide details to us. We will update you when we have that information. (Here is the update)

Regardless, our original story suggested a much stronger tie than was the case. So we're keeping it down. But we felt we owed you an explanation.